WASHINGTON (AFP)  Republican Senator John McCain on Wednesday joined his former rival President Barack Obama in calling for a nuclear-free world, a goal previously formulated by former president Ronald Reagan.

During a lengthy speech on the Senate floor marking the unveiling of a statue of Reagan in the Capitol, the veteran Arizona lawmaker recalled how his "personal hero" had dreamed of a world free of nuclear weapons.

"That is my dream too," McCain said.

"This is a distant and difficult goal. And we must proceed toward it prudently and pragmatically, and with a focused concern for our security and the security of allies who depend on us."

. . . . .

Obama welcomed McCain's comments.

"I have outlined an ambitious strategy for promoting arms control and preventing nuclear terrorism and proliferation, which is already bearing fruit," the president said in statement.

"I look forward to working with Senator McCain and the entire Congress to ensure that we accomplish these goals together for the American people and the security of the entire planet."

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4
posted on 06/03/2009 8:25:05 PM PDT
by rabscuttle385
("If this be treason, then make the most of it!" Patrick Henry)

And impossible this side of glory. Whatever kumbaya gobbledygook is in Obama’s mind, McCain at least makes a sustained showing of care about the tenets of distinct Christian faith. He should know better than to suggest this is a man-sized task.

8
posted on 06/03/2009 8:30:31 PM PDT
by HiTech RedNeck
(Beat a better path, and the world will build a mousetrap at your door.)

Genie is out of the bottle dumb a** McCain(goes without saying Bozo is a dumb a**)and has been since about 1944. Once something like that is learned the knowledge will always be out there and the only time it will disappear is when something bigger and more destructive takes its place. It has always been that way and always will be as long as the human race is on the earth.

To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go
To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star

This is my quest
To follow that star
No matter how hopeless
No matter how far

To fight for the right
Without question or pause
To be willing to march into Hell
For a heavenly cause

And I know if I’ll only be true
To this glorious quest
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm
When I’m laid to my rest

And the world will be better for this
That one man, scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable star

What both of these idiots fail to realize is that you can't put lightning back in the bottle. once it is out, it is out. The knowledge of nuclear fusion is well known and can be duplicated by any decent physicist that has access to the nuclear material.

Nonproliferation, and Anti-Balistic Missile defense are the only legitimate and rational approach to nuclear weapons.

Nothing wrong with wanting a nuclear free world - big problem with doing this unilaterally and without any way to make sure other nations also disarm their nukes.

The only thing wrong with wanting a nuclear free world is being nai'ive enough to think it's possible.

There is no way to prevent any country from rebuilding their nuclear weapons once yours are gone UNLESS you have the will to invade and stop any country at any time that is detected starting to build them.

Say it's 2050. All nuclear weapons in the world are gone. Then, one day, a large country starts to menace a small country. The small country converts its nuclear materials from peaceful use into weapons.

What, pray tell, is either the larger country, or the world in general, going to do against a small country armed with nuclear weapons? The same thing that Japan did against the U.S.. Namely, they'll lose cities until they decide to surrender.

No, I don't forsee most nations giving up their nuclear weapons. If anything, they will continue to proliferate faster and faster. It's human nature. All the soaring rhetoric and wide eyed idealism in the world is swept aside by the law of the jungle.

Nuclear disarmament is unenforceable globally without the will and the ability to incinerate anyone who dares violate the rules. No will and no ability equals no end of nukes.

Politicians should be realists with grownup policy positions. It makes no difference that a desire for a nuclear-free world is good as long that desire can never be realistically obtained. For supposedly serious politicians to spout fantasies and be taken seriously is the mark of something seriously wrong with the political system.

41
posted on 04/05/2010 8:46:26 PM PDT
by garbanzo
(Government is not the solution to our problems. Government is the problem.)

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